The Wolf Marshal's Pack (U.S. Marshal Shifters 3)

He wanted to look out for her, and she loved that. But she wanted to look out for him too.

“You’re so beautiful,” Colby said.

There was an ache in his voice, one Aria knew firsthand. He sounded like someone seeing one of the true natural world wonders for the first time.

Like he had thought he was prepared for her, but he was completely staggered by how gorgeous she really was when he finally saw her bare and face-to-face.

The fun, sexy delight of playing with having that kind of pull over him morphed into something more tender. It reminded her that she was just as unprepared for this as he was.

She would never have been able to see him coming. Even some hypothetically perfect guy designed in her imagination wouldn’t have been even a tenth as good.

She moved back on the bed, giving him as much room as she could.

“Be with me,” she said softly. “Please.”

“Always.”

He joined her on the bed and, without any further ado, sank down between her legs, licking a hot line up between her folds.

She’d been so primed already that that single, unbearable stroke of his tongue was all it took. Her world exploded into an impossible array of fireworks. Everything else in the room dropped to nothingness, and all that existed were the cascading bursts of bright pleasure. One tremor raced after the other, longer and fiercer than any orgasm she’d ever had before.

When everything came back into focus, she saw that Colby had been watching her face.

A little flush of post-climax self-consciousness gripped her, and she turned her head aside, pressing one hot cheek against the cool pillowcase.

Colby brushed his hand against her face. “What is it?”

“It’s embarrassing. I probably looked like a dork.”

Wow, a little voice in her head said. Okay, I guess we trust Colby’s love for us right up to the point where the word “dork” can come back into the picture, huh? And then we’re right back in high school.

Not that she’d ever specifically thought about her orgasm face back in high school. She hadn’t been worldly enough for that. It had taken college—and a couple issues of Cosmo—to give her that particular worry.

“You looked amazing. I still can’t believe I’m lucky enough to get to see you like this.”

The naked honesty in Colby’s voice left no room for doubt, no matter what kind of emotional baggage she’d lugged in with her.

“I’m the lucky one,” Aria said.

He leveled a look at her, with those dark blue eyes, that she could only—and with a shiver of delight—describe as some kind of alpha warning.

“Okay,” Aria said. “We’re both lucky.”

“I’ll take that.” He kissed her forehead.

She put her legs around him again. “I just want to feel you. All of you.”

He looked torn between two different kinds of want—his desire to spend more time just leisurely exploring her body and his desire for one of the most primitive, intimate kinds of satisfaction there was.

“You’re sure? I don’t want you to feel rushed—”

If she wasn’t going to feel ridiculous, then she wasn’t going to feel ridiculous.

And if she was going to be mated to a werewolf, then, dammit, she was going to be mated to a werewolf.

She let herself make the same kind of low growl he had earlier, and she tugged him even closer, until his body was pressed right up against hers. She could feel the hard length of his cock fitted so agonizingly close to her entrance. It made her moan.

“I’m sure. I’m one hundred percent sure.” She took in the sight of the bright white gauze against his tanned skin and added, “Just go slow. Don’t hurt yourself.”